Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government why the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government drafted and tabled the Environmental Delivery Plans (Appropriate Prioritisation) Regulations 2026 (SI 2026/655) when Baroness Hayman of Ullock made a commitment to the House on 17 September 2025 (HL Deb col 2331) that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs would take the lead on Environmental Delivery Plans.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government is responsible for the enabling powers under which the Environmental Delivery Plans (Appropriate Prioritisation) Regulations 2026 were made and therefore took the lead in bringing forward the regulations. The regulations were developed in close collaboration with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and Natural England, reflecting the shared responsibility for implementation of the Nature Restoration Fund and Environmental Delivery Plans.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government which peers were invited to the meetings to discuss (1) the draft Nature Restoration Levy Regulations 2026, and (2) the Environmental Delivery Plans (Appropriate Prioritisation) Regulations 2026, described in paragraph 44 of the 8th Report of Session 2026–27 of the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Lord Krebs and Baroness Willis of Summertown were invited to discuss the draft Nature Restoration Levy Regulations 2026 and the Environmental Delivery Plans (Appropriate Prioritisation) Regulations 2026. The invitation reflected their previous engagement on the Nature Restoration Fund during passage of the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 and their expressed interest in the development of the related secondary legislation.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government which Secretary of State will publish statutory guidance on the Nature Restoration Fund, and when.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Secretary of State for Defra will publish guidance on the Nature Restoration Fund so that it is in place for when the first Environmental Delivery Plan becomes available for developers. Defra will keep the need for further areas of guidance under review.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of misconnections to the sewerage system for (1) homes, and (2) schools.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In 2019 around 150,000 to 500,000 homes in the UK were estimated to have drain misconnections. Defra does not have numbers of misconnections for schools.
Property owners are legally responsible for resolving misconnected pipework on their property; public misconnections are the responsibility of water companies.
Should misconnections not be resolved, the responsible party can be prosecuted; in some cases, local authorities and water companies can access private property to fix misconnections and then recover their costs from the owner.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many sustainable farming incentive grants were awarded in 2025 (1) in total, and (2) that were of a value greater than £100,000.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Between January 2025 to December 2025, there were 45,295 Sustainable Farming Incentive Agreements. 863 of these agreements had an annual value of over £100,000, which is 1.91% of the overall agreements.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government why the Rural Payments Agency is not able to process applications from commons land applicants through either an electronic process or a paper-based process.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) recognises the importance of providing common landholders access to farming schemes.
Current systems do not yet allow common landholders to access schemes, but work is under way to address these issues, working with stakeholders.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will publish the list of councils which have not yet finalised their local nature recovery strategies.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government has published a map [see attached], which is updated regularly, to show the areas covered by each Local Nature Recovery Strategy and whether or not the strategy has been published. As of 22 May 2026, 38 strategies have been published with the remaining 10 strategies expected soon. The areas yet to publish their strategies are:
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Hayman of Ullock on 27 March (HL15802), whether they plan to close the national investigation into water and sewerage service companies launched in November 2021 after the consideration of the three pending charges for the second defendant water company.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The three pending charges all relate to Environment Act 1995 Section 110 charges for failing to provide records required within the national investigation into water and sewerage service companies launched in November 2021. They are not the main focus of the investigation which deals with discharges to the environment when not meeting flow to full treatment and insufficient rainfall.
There are no plans to close the investigation after the three charges pending against the second defendant have been settled.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to support the incorporation of the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures framework into UK corporate reporting and decision-making practices; and what is the timetable for incorporating this framework.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government continues to be a strong supporter of the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD). Defra funds the Green Finance Institute to support UK companies to engage with the TNFD’s recommendations and the UK now has the second highest number of TNFD adopters globally.
The Government has also been a strong supporter of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) since it launched with the goal of creating a global baseline for sustainability reporting standards. The Government has established a process for assessing and endorsing the ISSB’s standards for the UK context and recently published the UK versions of the ISSB’s first two standards: UK SRS S1 and UK SRS S2. ISSB is now progressing work on standard-setting for nature, drawing on the work of the TNFD, and aims to publish a draft later this year. Defra, DBT and the Financial Reporting Council are following the ISSB’s work on standard-setting for nature and stands ready to use the established process to assess and endorse it when it is finalised.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the Environment Agency has finished its investigation into Healthcare Environmental Services regarding disposal of waste in relation to the NHS.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The matter is under an advanced stage of review by the Environment Agency (EA). This is a complex case requiring the consideration of matters arising across jurisdictions and parallel legal proceedings. It is not appropriate to comment further until the EA’s review of the matter has been concluded.